Mood Photography

Whenever I see a pretty picture of an astronomical object, like a gas cloud, or even the surface of Mars, I always like to know how much of the color I am seeing is computer enhancement. The same applies for any scientific image. Often it’s obvious, such as the color coding of brain activity or blood flow in a PET scan or fMRI. The color is just a way to visually represent the data. Other times it’s not so obvious, like the color of the sky on Mars.

At the very least, however, the source of the image needs to be transparent – what exactly are we seeing.

Several people have recently pointed me toward a form of photography that is being sold as aura photography, but actually isn’t. There is, of course, no such thing as aura photography because there is no such thing as an aura.

Believers claim that every person has an aura – a shroud of color resulting from their energy field. For example, this aura photography site claims:

An AURA is the electromagnetic energy field that surrounds, encompasses and permeates the body as well as all living things. The colors and patterns within this energy field constitute a blueprint (the results of the energy we radiate from our feelings, thoughts, and physical being). Until recently, Aura’s were only seen by the special few who had a gift to see the rainbow of colors.

This is utter nonsense. People do radiate electromagnetic energy, but this is mostly infrared and is a function of our body temperature, not our thoughts and feelings. People do not give off visible light, however. Those who belief they can see an aura around other people are largely self deluded (it is thought that some may have a visual or sensory disorder, but this is speculative). There is also no instrument that can detect what “aura readers” claim to be seeing – because it has no basis in physical reality.